For twelve years the monster Grendel has raided the great hall of the Danish king Hrothgar by night, until a young warrior of the Geats, Beowulf, crosses the…
For twelve years the monster Grendel has raided the great hall of the Danish king Hrothgar by night, until a young warrior of the Geats, Beowulf, crosses the sea to fight him bare-handed and tears off his arm. Grendel's mother comes for revenge, and Beowulf follows her down through a lake to her underwater cave. Fifty years later, an old king himself, he faces a dragon that is burning his own land, and wins at the cost of his life.
Context and significance
Composed in Old English by an unknown poet, perhaps in the eighth century, Beowulf is the oldest long poem in English. This is Francis Barton Gummere's verse translation of 1910, which keeps the alliteration of the original, read by Tad E. in under three hours.
This is a LibriVox recording, read by volunteers and dedicated to the public domain; its audio files are kept by the Internet Archive, which plays and serves them here. Public-domain status differs from country to country, so check the law where you live before republishing it. Do you hold rights in this work? Request its removal